JLPT N5 Kanji – 空 – sora, akeru, kara

This is 5-Minute Kanji, and today, we will go over a militant, prepper kanji: the kanji for sky or empty.

Mnemonic:
A prepper Mother bird with heavy masCARA protects her children COOing behind her with an AK-47 in a nest on a stone pillar. EMPTY shells are in her nest that the birds just hatched from. SOLAR panels line her roof.

Onyomi:

クウ
kuu

Kunyomi:

そら、あけ.る、から、むな.しい
sora, ake.ru, kara

The kanji 空 is made up of two radicals – 穴, hole or cave, and 工, craft or construction. It has numerous readings, but the most common is クウ in multiple kanji compounds, such as 空気くうき (air) or 空港くうこう (airport). The next most common is そら, used to refer to the sky. Then, 空あける is used to refer to something emptying or becoming vacant. Be sure not to confuse it with 開あける – to (physically) open. Compare the two sentences:

ビンを　開あけます。(I opened the bottle.)
ビンを　空あけます。(I emptied [i.e. drank all of] the bottle.)

Finally, there is から, which shows up in phrases like 空っぽ – empty. The 空むなしい reading is fairly uncommon, and won’t show up on N5. It means empty or futile in the emotional or poetic sense.

Mnemonic Factory

As we encounter more complex kanji, it is essential to utilize kanji radicals or parts of kanji to form mnemonics. Here we have 穴, hole, and 工, construction or craft. If you are familiar with these two kanji, you can make a visual mnemonic by imagining yourself constructing a hole or a tunnel. To do this, you have to create an empty space, one of 空’s meanings.

I didn’t use the parts and instead imagined 工 as a column to put the bird’s nest on and 穴 as a roof with curtains hanging off it. The middle stroke is the chimney. I think this captures all the visual elements well without relying on knowing the other kanji that make it up.

Personally, I always think of this as a stick figure jumping over the hurdle (工) in the middle. He is jumping into the sky, one of the kanji’s meanings.

Now, let’s add in the sounds! The most common is the onyomi, クウ. Words that sound like that in English are COO, COOp, COOl, and perhaps KOOpon (koupon).

We now have a list of kunyomi, which might seem daunting. I left 空むなしい out since it is not as often used, and concentrated on just そら, あける, and から. That is still a pretty long list. For そら, you have SOLAR (pronounced with a Japanese accent so that the /l/ sound becomes /r/), SORA (sore), and perhaps you could wedge SODA in there, albeit it isn’t an exact match for sound. For あける, I used AK for AK-47, but you could also use ACHE. And finally, we have から, which could work for a person’s name CARA, if you happen to know someone by that name. You also have masCARA or KARAoke if you use the Japanese pronunciation.

Example Words

How about a few example words where this kanji is used?

Onyomi

Let’s take a look at some of the most common words that use 空:

• 空気（くうき） “air”
• 空港（くうこう） “airport”**
• 空席（くうせき） “vacant seat”*

*Not on the N5
**The kanji 港 is not on the N5. You will most likely see this word written in kana only – くうこう.

Kunyomi

Let’s take a look at some of the most common words that use 空:

• 空（そら） “sky”
• 空く（あく） “to become empty or vacant (intrans)”
• 空ける （あける）“to empty or vacate (trans)”
• 空っぽ（からっぽ) “empty”
• 空手（からて） “karate”

Commonly confused with

Story Review

Can you remember the story from the beginning? Let’s give it a try and yell out the words that are missing.

A prepper Mother bird with heavy mas____ protects her children ___ing behind her with an __-47 in a nest on a stone pillar. _____ shells are in her nest that the birds just hatched from. _____ panels line her roof.

Perfect? Let’s give it another try.

A prepper Mother bird with heavy mas____ protects her children ___ing behind her with an __-47 in a nest on a stone pillar. _____ shells are in her nest that the birds just hatched from. _____ panels line her roof.

Word Review

Can you read these? I’ll give you the kanji and please yell out the reading for each word

空気

空港*

空

空く

空っぽ

空手*

*Not N5 Word

That’s it for the kanji for sky or empty. Please let me know in the comments below if you have any questions. If you’d like to learn more kanji, hit the subscribe button and hit the bell mark to get a notification every time I send out a new video. Also, be sure to check out my other 5 Minute Kanji videos.